Word of the Year

Yesterday, I read an article about Obama's speech on the night of February 24 (link to the article by Jeff Zeleny). The article discussed the highlights of Obama's speech - some of his plans for the next four years: the $787 billion stimulus package, the bail out of US banks, a decrease in dependence on foreign oil and the reform of health care (among others). Zeleny does note, however, that Obama was rather vague in his speech. He said what he desires to do, but not how he intends to do it. As has been my tendency so far with our new President, I began to worry.

I began to worry that because of his vagueness, Obama will be criticized. I wondered how much I myself could trust someone who doesn't share how they plan on turning the country around with millions of viewers watching around the world.

And then I remembered...again...patience.

1. Obama has been in office for barely over a month;
2. A little under an hour (the length of Obama's speech) is nowhere near enough time to outline just how Obama plans to essentially undo all the Bush administration has done in eight long years;
3. The day after Zeleny's article was published, today, there is an article by Jackie Calmes describing how Obama plans to lower tax cuts for the wealthy and to use the money gained to make health care more affordable in the future.

Of course, Calmes talks a lot about tax brackets and just how the new tax cuts will work, but no matter how long I stared at the words on my screen I couldn't quite make head nor tails of exactly what it all meant.

The bottom line is this: of course Obama has plans for what he intends to do during his term. Of course there will be opposition from people throughout the United States. And he's been in office for one month. One month isn't even enough time to grow a decent-looking beard (although...how would I know?), much less know how to pull one of the most powerful countries in the world out of an economic recession and change a great deal of what has been put in place in the last eight years.

I simply need to have confidence in Mr. Obama and have faith in the fact that he can lead us out of these dark(ish) times. I've no reason to doubt him.

Some quotes I liked from the speech:

"While our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken, though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this: we will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before."

"While the cost of action will be great, I assure you the cost of inaction will be far greater."

He also said (and I'm paraphrasing) that we need to sacrifice short term benefits and comforts for the long term ones.

I'm going to make "Patience" my personal word of the year.

-ZMG